


The Youth

by suisfine



Series: The Youth [1]
Category: Assassin's Creed
Genre: Abstergo Industries, Alternate Universe - Assassin's Creed Fusion, Gen, The Animus (Assassin's Creed), assassin's creed I - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-15
Updated: 2015-11-15
Packaged: 2018-05-01 18:05:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5215490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/suisfine/pseuds/suisfine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shaun Hastings knows something isn't quite right about Abstergo Industries, and Rebecca confirms it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Youth

\--Croydon, England, December of 2000

New Fluoride. It managed to sound innocent and concerning at the same time. On one hand, a new dental product cheerily on display at the local supermarket. On the other hand, any pharmaceutical that you only hear about in the darkest corners of the dark net is certainly concerning. Shaun took a sip of his coffee. and drummed his fingers on his desk. Mum didn't like it when he drank coffee late. Ah, the french press. The only good thing that country made in his opinion. 1:06 AM the clock read. Well, it was technically morning, Shaun sighed.  
He had heard of every conspiracy theory and unexplained happening floating around cyberspace, but he was on to something. No lizard men and no Y2k hysteria, this was the real deal.  
Division of Pharmaceutical and chemical research, Abstergo  
26/3/00  
The latest version of New Fluoride has passed lab inspection and is due for testing. The chemical compound is designed to not only purify water, but to have positive health effects on the taker.

Shaun had found it on an internet forum in the corporate watchdog tag. A few paragraphs of chemistry Jargon followed.

Due to the nature of the chemical, it needs to be tested on a mass level. The official outcome can only be known if thousands or hundreds of thousands ingest the product. This of course is legally problematic, and it is suggested the company go forth covertly.

Shit. Releases like that had been blowing up the forum, or what counts as blowing up a tiny conspiracy page.... The original was posted by Marco112 . He was a new one on the forum. Of course all users were anonymous, but you learn to recognize screen names. Not his.

J34nn3-D4rc  
ok, is this real? I mean I dont doubt abstergo is a shady bunch, but where the fuck did this come from?

 

Nothing is unhackble

Xxx_loony_xxX  
yea but the bloke hasnt said a single thing since posting itt.

 

tons of people pop up here m8 its the point of ths thingg

Zero_man  
Please learn to speak English.

decebr1st  
Guys this isn't news or anything... not to me. Look, anything as big as Abstergo messes up sometimes. Things slip through. When I was in high school, '97 or so I picked up on some Abstergo talks on my ham radio. There was talk about their anti-depressant trials being unethical in the '80s and they seem to have this weird jones with the Chinese government.

Shaun's friends brushed off his interest in conspiracies as a funny quirk, except for Oli who was somewhat interested but didn't believe any of them. His brother Terry thought he was insane and kept making tin-hat jokes. His parents didn't notice, them having way more to worry about with his brother Terry's grades and working full time.

Guy_Fawkes  
Ok, this might be unrelated but a bunch of people are ill in this little village outside of Devon. It's not rural germs mad cow either. I have cousins there, and them and a bunch of friends got seriously ill after the water tower/sewage got "repaired." Few ended up in hospital. Details are dodgy which makes it all the more suspicious...

Decembr1st  
Sounds like it could be related. Not sure though, that they would risk running tests in first world countries.

Guy_Fawkes  
It makes sense though to test the drug on people in developed countries. If that's where you are planning to distribute it, you need to have a controlled experiment.  
The thing is, a neighbor of mine of mine dropped off the face of the planet. Abstergo employee, working in chemistry. Seemed particularly stressed when I mentioned the Devon incident. I'm The police don't even seem to be looking for him.

Decembr1st  
that sounds suspicious. I don't doubt Abstergo has got people in the police. And Downing Street. A lot of Abstergo people have gone missing in the last six years... Was he really high ranking? Do the police have any cover story? -

Mr. Greeney was a causal family friend. Middle aged engineer who lived down the street with his wife and two Yorkshire terriers. One his was out at the grocers and had come back to an empty house. It was as if the man had vanished in thin air, not a lead nor a rumor.

Guy_Fawkes  
Well he wasn't some corporate big-shot that I know of. He was a really engineer though, veteran more or less. I've heard the police are saying its a suicide, but no one buys into it and no one has another explanation. Do you live in England by any chance?  
Shaun didn't want to sound suspicious, but he wondered how many people on the forum were actually in the British Isles.

Decembr1st  
Strange. Poor bloke... hell, it might have even been him that leaking the documents. I'm Scottish but I visit down south a lot. Family stuff. Maybe I'll take a detour someday and check up on Devon.

Guy_Fawkes  
Want to meet up in London ever? No one I know seems to be in on the whole Abstergo thing. Or at least no one takes it seriously. There is a lot to be said face to face.

Decembr1st  
And how do I know you aren't from Abstergo?

Guy_Fawkes  
Take a leap of faith.

And soon it was set. A month from that day at a little socialist bookstore. Shaun couldn't help but to think of it constantly. Someone else from the dark-net. Someone else who knew the truth. School lessons were hard to focus on when he knew he could be on to something big.

Soon, that day came. Shaun told his parents he was going to spend the night at Oli's, and got the first bus he could get to downtown. It took about an hour, London metro traffic being bad as always. He sat nervously, tapping his leg and staring intently out of the window, stopping only to check his watch. He was 15. He could pass for 17 maybe... Shaun hoped Decembr1st would take him seriously.

After wandering around the same two blocks for fifteen minutes, Shaun found Fair Labour Coffeehouse and Bookseller. It was a cozy shop with creaky wooden floors and wall-to-wall bookshelves. The smell of fresh espresso and whirring machines instantly made him relax a little. He ordered a cup and sat down at a small table in the very back of the store. He glanced at his watch again. Alone at evening in London, with no one knowing where he was. Brilliant.  
Then he walked in. Blue jacket and cap, just like he had said. Decembr1st. He was in his early or mid twenties, gaunt, tall and with round glasses. Decembr1st met Shaun's eyes and nodded. A minute later he sat across from him, latte in hand.  
"Fawkes?" he said quietly in a slight Glaswegian accent.  
"Nice to meet you Decembr1st." Shaun nodded.  
"Sorry, was expecting you to be..."  
"Less teenager?" Shaun finished his question.  
"Yeah." Decembr1st looked at the table. "Its ok though, same age I got into this stuff."  
"So, the ham radio incident of '97." Shaun said. This didn't seem like a meeting where small talk would bode well.  
"Ah yes. I was a big radio hobbyist when I was younger, used my dads ham a lot. Usually, I would pick up your standard banter and stations. But things come up. You've heard of number stations I'm sure?"  
"Of course. Like the one out of Russia." Decembr1st glanced around warily.  
"I heard them. Abstergo." he paused. "They said a series of numbers. Coordinates I think. They said, 'cross, activate cross.' I don't know what cross is. or maybe Cross is a who." he was whispering now. "They said, 'purge activate' and some more numbers. Then they listed names. Rikkin, England, Daniel. Finally, they said 'we have taken DiCosimo. DiCosimo deceased.' They ended by saying 'Abstergo over' and a bunch more numbers."  
"Bloody hell." Shaun said slowly. "What was it?"  
"To this day, I have no clue. But I know who DiCosimo is. I poked around, did some research. He was an up-and-coming Canadian politician who was notoriously against Abstergo activities. They found his body in a river right after I heard the broadcast."

\--Croydon, England, April of 2001

Decembr1st had stopped answering Shaun's messages. He hadn't posted in two months. The message board seemed strangely quiet.  
Decemb1st  
one post was headed. Shaun's heart leapt.  
Decembr1st is dead. I was his good friend. He asked me to alert this forum if anything happened to him.  
Shaun didn't believe it. He couldn't, his heart beat faster and faster and anxiety cut through him. There was a link. The friend had included a link. Western Morning News. "Body washed up in Bristol channel." it said. A body was found on the beach identified as Glasgow resident Mark McLaine. Cause of death unknown. At the bottom of the page there was picture, a picture of Decembr1st.

\--Pasadena, California, spring of 2004

Rebecca was amazed it took her as long as it did to find computers. Everything about them was beautiful, the glowing screen, wires, cords and gentle whirring. Coding was simple, hardware interesting, hacking amazing.  
Her broken leg and fractured wrist had long since healed, but her prospects as a professional snowboarder were done for. And she was ok with that. Of course, it hurt more than the broken bones at first, but studying computer science was her new calling.  
She was cutting a lecture on coding to sit in the library with a huge thermos of coffee. She could afford to miss that lecture. The previous night's concert and marijuana related antics had worn her out. So she sat, headphones on, CD player on her lap, buried in a psychology book. It was an amazing concept, using technology to help hypnotize and to use as therapy. The intersection of electronics and biology.  
"Rebecca." She kept whistling, oblivious.  
"Rebecca, Ms. Crane!" she felt a tap on her shoulder. She slid off her headphones and turned around.  
"Uh, sorry about that." Dr. Stielman stood in front of her, calm looking as ever, dirty blonde hair in a tight bun. After some small talk, and a short chat on the psychology book, Stielman gave her proposition.

Genetic memories. The driving force behind instinct, deja vu, connections with ancestors and ghosts of memories. A new science, a very new science. Some brush it off, but the greatest minds look far into the concept. And Rebecca was a great mind, or so Stielman attested. Barely 20 years old, she had accomplished more than most computer scientists and hackers do in a life time. They sat in Dr. Stielman's office, a small but tastefully furnished room. A picture sat on her desk, her with a tall, light haired man and a girl who was perhaps thirteen. Husband and daughter, likely.  
And of course, Rebecca gave an enthusiastic yes! who wouldn't be down with that? her mind raced. A computer, the most powerful she could make, probing mind and DNA for little bits of the past. That was better than any intoxication.

 

When Rebecca wasn't in class, she was in Stielman's lab. The Doctor supplied her with basic blueprints and background information, occasionally bringing her tea and talking about her daughter Lucy.  
"Huh, Abstergo invented this. Figures." Rebecca read through her notebook. the doctor looked somber.  
"You name it, Abstergo made it." She shook her head.  
"You know, they always seemed a bit... ya know, off." Rebecca motioned with her hand. "And this just convinces me more." she half laughed.  
"Believe me, they are off." the doctor lowered her voice and looked at Rebecca with wide gray eyes. "No group is as big with them without having something shady going on."

 

The internet had plenty of clues if you looked hard enough. Abstergo, connected with Enron, the 2000 election, Boris Yeltsin, basically every drug on the market. Ad the doctor confirmed it. And soon the truth came.  
The secret orders, one for freedom, one for a new world order. 1000 years of conflict, all over control. The government, businesses, anything you could name. And Rebecca hardly doubted it, she was hardly surprised. The proof was all there, more proof when the doctor showed her the animus history stretching back to 1980.  
Rebecca had yet another calling. The assassins needed her.

\--Fall of 2004

"Is that for syncing subjects with memories?" Rebecca flinched and whipped around. Lucy, the girl from the picture was standing right over her. A little older, but definitely the girl.   
"Um, yeah." Rebecca said, turning back to the machine. "Interested in genetic memories?"  
"Yes!" Lucy exclaimed. "Mom and dad have told me everything about them. I'll studying them in a while. Like, soon." she circled the animus machine. "So it's not a shock to you?" she asked.  
"The whole ancient order thing? nah. not really. Just another adventure I say!" Rebecca grinned.  
"It's so crazy that people don't know about it." Lucy said. "well, not crazy, just odd to think about you know."  
"And you were born into the order." Rebecca concluded.  
"Yep. Raised to fight since day one." Lucy said, a mix of exhaustion and pride.  
They spent the next fifteen minutes talking about the order's history and the science of the animus. Lucy was extremely articulate for her age.  
"The thing is," Lucy said slowly. "Mom might not have told you, but our numbers are really low. Dwindling." the doctor had mentioned it. Not to that degree though. "You see, a lot of kids born into the brotherhood don't want to stay. Well, I shouldn't gossip, but Miles's kid ran off last year"  
"Miles?"  
"The leader. Well, de facto anyway. His son, Desmond, ran away. He doesn't like to talk about it poor guy."  
"That sucks." Rebecca wasn't sure what else to say. Lucy mentioned that Miles was strict, but very smart man. He had helped train her for years.  
"Train for what?" Rebecca asked.  
"Undercover work. At Abstergo! I even know what my fake name is going to be." she smiled faintly. "Lucy Stillman."

 

\--September of 2009

This guy was going to get himself killed, Rebecca shook her head. Shaun Hastings; graduate student, junior professor, whistle-blower. Every conspiracy page on the internet and darknet seemed to have a trace of him on it. Maybe he could fool Abstergo spyware, but not Rebecca Crane. Christ, he even contributed to Wikileaks.

To: sjhastings85@yahoo.com  
From: ier839y-q-93$%#?zzzc_#  
subject:  
You are messing with the wrong people. Believe me, I am on your side. You are lucky they haven't gotten you yet. Stay low, stay safe.

He couldn't reply, but she wished he could. He sounded like an interesting sort.

 

London, England, November 2009

The email had been on Shaun's mind for months. Untraceable. "I am on your side." he had no reason to believe that, but no reason to doubt it. If they knew he was really onto something, cryptic emails wouldn't be their line of defense.  
He had been meeting the man for a month. David, a former Abstergo employee. The man was at least seventy and losing a battle against cancer, but his memories were clear. He had been high up the ranks. As always, they met at the park bench near David's house. They rarely faced each-other as David answered questions and Shaun kept his phone on record. David wasn't just talk. He had documents to prove it, all handed off to Shaun. Fluoride, NASA, NSA, MI6, stasi to the shah. Abstergo was everywhere, all fitting in a perfect web. David wanted it off his chest, there was nothing that scared him when he was so close to the grave.  
"This has been on since the thirties right?" Shaun asked one day. "You know, 'casue nothing good came from that decade." he muttered. David gave a shallow laugh.  
"This has been going on much longer. Rome wasn't built in a day. Abstergo didn't come out of nowhere to rule the world." he paused for a long time.  
"Then how long has the... order, group been around?" David's pale eyes looked into the distance, head shaking slightly.  
"Son, have you heard of the Knights Templar?" he said softly.  
"French order during the crusades, destroyed for heresy." Shaun replied. "Burnt up if I remember? the French are quite savage."  
"But they were never destroyed."  
"What?"  
"The Knights Templar has been around for 1000 years. Its a tectonic plate, it moves around, it changes, people forget its there. But it never goes. No clear beginning, no clear end."  
"And occasionally there's an earthquake." Shaun concluded. "But... how?"  
"Well of course they don't have swords and armor anymore. They have blended into society for years. In the shadows, every government, every war. They became Abstergo Industries as a cover. The latest of many. And it has worked amazingly."


End file.
